MURRIETA — Amanda Pedersen-Henry has faced some tough competition this season as a sophomore middle blocker for Vista Murrieta High’s girls volleyball team.

But she’d be hard-pressed to find a more worthy opponent than the one she competes against in practice.

"I see Alyse on the other side of the net everyday," Pedersen-Henry said. "If that doesn’t get you ready to play on game day, nothing will."

Pedersen-Henry and her practice adversary, Alyse Whitaker, teamed up to make life miserable for visiting Ventura on Tuesday. The duo combined for 30 kills, leading Vista Murrieta to a 25-18, 25-22, 25-13 victory over the Cougars in the first round of the CIF Southern Section Division 1-AA girls’ volleyball playoffs.

That victory advanced the No. 8-seeded Broncos (32-4) to a second-round match tonight against Dana Hills.

The 6-foot, 2-inch Whitaker, who has accepted an athletic scholarship at Duke, was her usual dominant self at middle blocker.

She received plenty of help from her shorter but talented teammate.

“We try to get the ball quickly up in the air to our middles that already have a height advantage,” Broncos coach Kristen Cooke said. “That was pretty much the game plan.”

Pedersen-Henry, who finished with 12 kills, is 3 inches shorter and two years younger than Whitaker. But her presence in the middle hardly goes unnoticed.

“In practice, we’re never on the same team, so we’re always competing against each other,” said Pedersen-Henry. “Alyse is one of the strongest blockers on the team, so that really helps me a lot.

“I always have to work on hitting around her and getting my technique down.”

The Broncos were rarely down in Tuesday’s match. Two kills by Whitaker (18 kills, 11 digs) and a block by Kristin Parker helped close out the first game.

The second game was the most hotly contested. Leading 20-18, Vista extended its lead to 23-19 after kills from Pedersen-Henry and Whitaker.

But Ventura (14-14) cut it to 23-22 after a block by Lindsey Tice.

After a Cougars service error, Broncos setter Morgan Nunley (43 assists, 7 kills) salted the game away with a well-placed dump.

“I needed to catch them off-guard because their blocker went with (Whitaker) because she did a really good job of getting open on the side,” Nunley said. “The dump had been working earlier in the match.”

Whitaker and Pedersen-Henry each added four kills in the final game.

“It’s an advantage being a bigger blocker against a team that’s smaller,” Whitaker said. “Amanda may be a little bit shorter than me, but she takes advantage of her athletic skills.”